“They have various reasons, so they say, but the unstated reason is the elephant in the room: they don’t think they can win, and so they don’t want to sully their political reputations.”
That could be the case possibly (albeit I have not seen evidence of it). I see a different “elephant in the room”: With Obama being the first affirmative action POTUS, there is a concern out there about suffering the fallout of accusations of being labeled a “racist” for having to go negative on Obama in a race against him. It’s the very thing that drove McCain to conduct his campaign the way he did. It’s as if it’s against “the rules” to bring up Jeremiah Wright, Saul Alinsky, the controversy surrounding O’s birth certificate, etc. Sure, they will attack him on his policies but good luck with that if you’re Mitt “Mr. Romneycare.”
